CNN Just Discovered That Everyone In Fashion Is On An NYFW Diet, Horrible

There’s a new trend on Twitter and it’s as dumb as it sounds: #NYFW Diet, which invites participants throughout the industry to share their sad, maybe-disordered crash diets in preparation for fashion week. Many publicists, editors, and assistants have begun a strident routine of broccoli and egg whites, but this time… they want you to know about it. Although not all of the industry slavishly lives on “kale and dust” for months leading up to now, a pre-NYFW diet for some isn’t terribly surprising. Unless you’re at CNN, who just noticed.

And they’re horrified:

When it comes to the biannual fashion shows, which kick off Thursday, models aren’t the only ones looking to drop a few pounds before hitting the tents. Some publicists, bloggers and fashion editors have been counting calories for weeks in anticipation of the week-long event, where to some, networking and being seen are just as important as the collections debuting on the runways.

Anyone who has tried to get in shape for a wedding or school reunion can relate to the pressure of wanting to look his or her best and reaching to achieve that goal with varying degrees of success.

Nutritionists say that limiting caloric intake in a compressed time frame can lead to nutrient deficiencies, causing decreased immune function, dry skin and loss of muscle or bone density, for starters. But in an industry that’s all about image, it’s a price many are willing to pay.

Nutrient deficiencies? Not nutrient deficiencies! CNN goes on to get some quotes from a publicist named Keisha McCotry, who’s been eating side salads, unseasoned baked chicken and steamed broccoli for monthes. McCotry says Fashion Week is “prime recruiting season” and explains helpfully, “You want to go to events wearing the designers’ clothes, and you can’t do that with a flabby belly.” Everything about this is the worst.

If you didn’t think the whole piece existed just to reinforce every stereotype possible about how the industry is full of mindless assholes with severe eating problems, you’d… only be half-finished. Yes, it also needs to reinforce terrible stereotypes about women in general! It’s not enough to perceive all fashion people as shallow and calorie-obsessed, we may add to that impressively sexist:

“This process is very grueling, but being able to be at Fashion Week is every woman’s dream,” [McCotry] said. “Every woman should get to experience it once, even if you don’t go through what we have to go through.”

Did you hear that, ladies? Gnawing lukewarm broccoli for months so you can shame yourself into designer clothes to impress anonymous other people is every woman’s dream. If not, you’re probably gay.